There was a recent thread up at Panda's that indicated that the
Discovery Institute had changed its policy on teaching intelligent
design in the public schools. I went over to the Discovery Institute's
web page and checked. The Discovery Institute has dropped the statement
that they have a scientific theory of intelligent design that can be
taught in the public schools from their official policy statement on the
issue. They still insinuate that alternative theories can be taught,
but they no longer include intelligent design among the viable alternatives.
I tried to use Wayback to look up the old policy statements, but
apparently Wayback has a fault in that it preserves the links on the web
page, but the contents of the link can change over time. When I click
on the Wayback Discovery Institute links to their official policy
statement I only get the new statement. Fortunately due to Nyikos'
lying about the stupidest things I did post the entire statement as it
existed a couple years ago that can be used as a comparison. It was
changing even then. I recall that when I first quoted the junk to
Nyikos the statement was less scam-like just a few months before. Until
around Dover (2004) they didn't have the qualifiers of "mandate" or
"require" in the statement. Unfortunately I do not have copies of those
old statements, but likely they have been preserved somewhere.
This is the old 2011 statement that I quoted in its entierty when Nyikos
tried to lie about it. It seems abnormal that Nyikos would be good for
anything.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/talk.origins/rhidrC4IExU/YpdRzXKpsQQJ
QUOTE:
What does the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture
recommend for science education curriculum?
As a matter of public policy, Discovery Institute opposes any effort
to require the teaching of intelligent design by school districts or
state boards of education. Attempts to mandate teaching about
intelligent design only politicize the theory and will hinder fair and
open discussion of the merits of the theory among scholars and within
the scientific community. Furthermore, most teachers at the present
time do not know enough about intelligent design to teach about it
accurately and objectively.
Instead of mandating intelligent design, Discovery Institute seeks to
increase the coverage of evolution in textbooks. It believes that
evolution should be fully and completely presented to students, and
they should learn more about evolutionary theory, including its
unresolved issues. In other words, evolution should be taught as a
scientific theory that is open to critical scrutiny, not as a sacred
dogma that can't be questioned.
Discovery Institute believes that a curriculum that aims to provide
students with an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of neo-
Darwinian and chemical evolutionary theories (rather than teaching an
alternative theory, such as intelligent design) represents a common
ground approach that all reasonable citizens can agree on.
Seven states (Alabama, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, Pennsylvania,
South Carolina and Texas) have science standards that require learning
about some of the scientific controversies relating to evolution.
Additionally, Louisiana has a statewide law that protects the rights
of teachers �to help students understand, analyze, critique, and
review scientific theories in an objective manner,� specifically
naming evolution as an example. Texas�s science standards require
that students �analyze, evaluate and critique scientific explanations
� including examining all sides of scientific evidence of those
scientific explanations so as to encourage critical thinking.� Texas
also requires students to �analyze and evaluate� core evolutionary
claims including �common ancestry,� �natural selection,� �mutation,�
and the formation of �long complex molecules having information such
as the DNA molecule for self-replicating life.�
Although Discovery Institute does not advocate requiring the teaching
of intelligent design in public schools, it does believe there is
nothing unconstitutional about voluntarily discussing the scientific
theory of design in the classroom. In addition, the Institute opposes
efforts to persecute individual teachers who may wish to discuss the
scientific debate over design in an objective and pedagogically
appropriate manner.
The U.S. Supreme Court in Edwards v. Aguillard strongly affirmed the
individual teacher�s right to academic freedom. It also recognized
that, while the statute requiring the teaching of creationism in that
case was unconstitutional, ��teaching a variety of scientific theories
about the origins of humankind to schoolchildren might be validly done
with the clear secular intent of enhancing the effectiveness of
science instruction.�
END QUOTE:
This paragraph is now missing from the new statement:
QUOTE:
Although Discovery Institute does not advocate requiring the teaching
of intelligent design in public schools, it does believe there is
nothing unconstitutional about voluntarily discussing the scientific
theory of design in the classroom. In addition, the Institute opposes
efforts to persecute individual teachers who may wish to discuss the
scientific debate over design in an objective and pedagogically
appropriate manner.
END QUOTE:
New Discovery Institute policy statement:
What does the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture
recommend for science education curriculum?
As a matter of public policy, Discovery Institute opposes any effort to
require the teaching of intelligent design by school districts or state
boards of education. Attempts to mandate teaching about intelligent
design only politicize the theory and will hinder fair and open
discussion of the merits of the theory among scholars and within the
scientific community. Furthermore, most teachers at the present time do
not know enough about intelligent design to teach about it accurately
and objectively.
Instead of mandating intelligent design, Discovery Institute seeks to
increase the coverage of evolution in textbooks. It believes that
evolution should be fully and completely presented to students, and they
should learn more about evolutionary theory, including its unresolved
issues. In other words, evolution should be taught as a scientific
theory that is open to critical scrutiny, not as a sacred dogma that
can't be questioned.
Discovery Institute believes that a curriculum that aims to provide
students with an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of
neo-Darwinian and chemical evolutionary theories (rather than teaching
an alternative theory, such as intelligent design) represents a common
ground approach that all reasonable citizens can agree on.
Seven states (Alabama, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, Pennsylvania,
South Carolina and Texas) have science standards that require learning
about some of the scientific controversies relating to evolution.
Texas�s science standards require that students �analyze, evaluate and
critique scientific explanations � including examining all sides of
scientific evidence of those scientific explanations so as to encourage
critical thinking.� Texas also requires students to �analyze and
evaluate� core evolutionary claims including �common ancestry,� �natural
selection,� �mutation,� and the formation of �long complex molecules
having information such as the DNA molecule for self-replicating life.�
Three states (Tennessee, Louisiana, and Mississippi) have adopted
statutes that protect the rights of teachers and/or students to discuss
the scientific evidence for and against Darwinian evolution or other
scientific theories in the curriculum. The Tennessee law permits
teachers "to help students understand, analyze, critique, and review in
an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses
of existing scientific theories covered in the course being taught." At
the same time, the Tennessee law "only protects the teaching of
scientific information, and shall not be construed to promote any
religious or non-religious doctrine, promote discrimination for or
against a particular set of religious beliefs or non-beliefs, or promote
discrimination for or against religion or non-religion."
The U.S. Supreme Court in Edwards v. Aguillard strongly affirmed the
individual teacher�s right to academic freedom. It also recognized that,
while the statute requiring the teaching of creationism in that case was
unconstitutional, ��teaching a variety of scientific theories about the
origins of humankind to schoolchildren might be validly done with the
clear secular intent of enhancing the effectiveness of science instruction.�
END QUOTE:
http://www.discovery.org/a/3164
The Discovery Institute no longer refers to ID as a "scientific" theory
and recommends that it not be put forward as an alternative. "Rather
than" remains in the statement but is still sort of scam language. Will
any rube be able to get the hint now about not teaching intelligent
design? Now that they no longer claim that ID is a scientific theory
the meaning of this paragraph should be understandable to even the
densest rube. "Don't get caught teaching intelligent design in the
public schools!" I think that the ID perps have an obligation to make
that as clear as they possibly can. Not just with wormy language like this.
QUOTE:
Discovery Institute believes that a curriculum that aims to provide
students with an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of
neo-Darwinian and chemical evolutionary theories (rather than teaching
an alternative theory, such as intelligent design) represents a common
ground approach that all reasonable citizens can agree on.
END QUOTE:
So my guess is that claims that ID should not be taught in the public
schools will become more common out of the IDiots and ID perps. The
only IDiots left will be the ones dishonest enough to bend over and take
the switch scam from the guys, that there is no longer any doubt, lied
to them about the ID scam. Why is ID no longer referred to as a
scientific theory or an alternative worth teaching if it was all that
the ID perps claimed that it was?
The new policy statement and what they are telling the rubes at their
summer institute makes it looks like a phase of creationism is passing
into history. As with the Scientific Creationist bull pucky it will
likely continue to be pushed around by the ignorant, incompetent and or
dishonest for years to come, but it looks like the perpetrators have
given up on the Teach ID scam for now. Will the ID perp's bait and
switch scam have a future without the bait? How is the Discovery
Institute going to sell their obfuscation scam without having anything
worth obfuscating the issue about?
Without ID/creationism as a teachable alternative why continue to
obfuscate the issue?
Ron Okimoto